What Robotaxis Brought San Francisco

Few Americans have had more direct experience with self-driving cars than the residents of San Francisco. For four years, robotaxis from companies like Waymo, Cruise and Zoox have traversed the city’s famously hilly streets as they conduct test runs, transport passengers and travel empty toward pickup locations (known as “deadheading”). Anyone can request a driverless ride by tapping an app on their smartphone, much as they would an Uber.

While some San Franciscans have celebrated robotaxis for heralding a safer, easier future of urban mobility, others complained that they obstruct emergency response, block traffic and entrench transportation networks already biased toward automobiles. In 2023, an activist campaign encouraged Bay Area residents to disable robotaxis by “coning” them — placing traffic cones atop their hoods, which froze the vehicles in place.